A close-up look at NYC education policy, politics,and the people who have been, are now, or will be affected by acts of corruption and fraud. ATR CONNECT assists individuals who suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool and are the "new" rubber roomers, and re-assigned. The terms "rubber room" and "ATR" mean that you or any person has been targeted for removal from your job. A "Rubber Room" is not a place, but a process.

I was asked to run for President because my oldest daughter was accepted for 8th grade into the Honors Program, DELTA, in 1998, by the head of that program Fred La Senna. I had done my research and found the DELTA program after I became unhappy with Robert Wagner MS 167 on East 76th Street.

When Sari began at MS 54, I took a long hard look at the entire school, and I saw racial disparity between the 5 programs under Principal Lawrence Lynch ("Larry"). As I was new to public education (I attended an all-girls' private school with my twin sister, and 3 of my 4 daughters were also at the same private school before I took them out), I asked about the Special Education children placed in the basement often without a teacher. All the students were African-American or Hispanic. I asked why DELTA was 98% white. I was ignored.

But I went to all the teachers in the school first as a parent working with the PTA, then as President, and told them if they needed anything, to tell me. When I got a request for resources, I got a donation or bought the resources myself.

As PTA President, my first fund-raiser was a huge success, at Barnes and Noble. We raised more than $13,000 in one day.

Patricia Romandetto

Then, Larry took our check and said that he had to give it to the Superintendent of District 3, Patricia Romandetto. I never agreed, but went into investigative reporter mode and started reading up on how and why this could happen. I went to the District 3 Office at West 93rd Street and documented the corruption and lies of parent engagement rep. D.J. Sheppard, who allowed Larry Lynch to alter the contents of the CEP in 2000 and attach a fake sign in sheet by all members of the School Leadership Team, of which I was a member.

I was determined to get the money put into the PTA, and finally got that done, at a great price to me and my family. I unearthed the massive corruption and racial discrimination in District 3 which led to Patricia Romandetto's removal - and she was sued by former Principal Clara Garrett in Federal Court for racial discrimination - I attended her trial. Larry Lynch was also removed from his position. MS 54 AP David Getz - now principal of East Side Middle School - was a silent supporter. By the way, when Mrs. Romandetto testified at her trial in the Southern District, she wore her fur coat, and while sitting under the lights in court I made note that from where I was sitting she looked exactly like Cruella De Vil in the movie "101 Dalmations".

Cruella de Vil

Sari went on to Stuyvesant High School, where I saw the effect of the racial policies in place in NYC at the Elementary and middle school levels. African-American kids are shut out of getting the math and AP resources which would give them equal opportunity to succeed on the SSHAT. I was elected to the Executive Board, and of course said something. What I did not know was that Jonathan Blaufarb, Gene's son, was AP of P811M on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and was involved in helping Larry Lynch and Pat Romandetto take the money of the minority special education kids who were in the basement of Booker T. Washington 54.

Stuyvesant AP of Guidance Gene Blaufarb, AP of Special Education Jay Biegelson and Eleanor Archie conspired to silence me by ripping up Sari's IEP, changing it without my knowledge or consent (Jay Biegelson signed off as Sari's parent to validate a fake IEP review meeting) and by decertifying her because she was, they later told me, " too smart to need any support". Eleanor wrote on the decertification that she had tried to contact me but I would not respond. This was a lie.

I was in Stuy every day, because I was working with the Stuy PA and the Executive Board as a volunteer then as Editor of the Parent Association newspaper, the PA Bulletin. I heard nothing until after the february day when Sari did not come home.

When someone can document retaliation for speaking out, he/she can do one of at least two things: stay silent and hope that the people who are retaliating, stop; or, fight those who attack despite the consequences. I did the latter.

The answer is not to turn away and go away, I believe fighting injustice is the only way, and I am one of many who refuse to turn a blind eye to unfairness anywhere, anyhow. I am now strengthened by the fact that my kids are no longer in the NYC DOE system, all are college grads and off on their own. But we are informed and vigilant. Always.

Harlem Schools Are Left
to Fail as Those Not Far Away Thrive
New York Times, January 24, 2017LINK

Some of the best public elementary schools in New York City are in Community
School District 3, on Manhattan’s West Side. At those schools, the vast
majority of children pass the annual state tests, gifted and talented programs buzz
with activity, and special programs attract promising young musicians or
families who want a progressive approach to education.

But none of those schools are in Harlem.

In District 3’s Harlem schools, there are no gifted and talented programs. Of
the six elementary schools there where students take the state tests, only one
comes close to the citywide passing rates of 38 percent in reading and 36
percent in math. At one school, only 6 percent of third- through eighth-grade
students passed the most recent math tests.

The children in the Harlem schools are mostly black and Hispanic and
low-income, while the majority of children in the district’s other elementary
schools are white or Asian, and either middle class or wealthy.

The New York Times has been
examining the district over the past few months to look at the
forces that shape the racial and economic makeup of the city’s schools. Unlike
in many parts of the city, in District 3 — which runs from 59th Street to 122nd
Street along Manhattan’s western flank, then takes a dogleg into Harlem — people from
different races and socioeconomic levels often live near one another. The
district’s schools, however, are sharply divided by race and
income, and diverge just as sharply in their levels of academic
achievement.

Nowhere is that tale of two districts clearer than in Harlem.

While the high-performing schools on the Upper West Side are generally at
capacity or overcrowded, enrollment at the Harlem schools has been falling as
parents abandon the traditional public schools in favor of higher-performing charter
schools. There are now nine in the district, eight of them in
Harlem. White families, who have moved into the area in increasing numbers,
generally do not send their children to the neighborhood schools, district or
charter, leaving them deeply segregated. And neither the Education Department
nor the district superintendent has put forth a comprehensive plan for how to
lift the Harlem schools’ academic performance.

Instead, in October, the department proposed effectively closing one of them,
Public School 241, the STEM Institute of Manhattan,
which has been struggling academically and shedding students for years. There
are just 128 students in kindergarten through fifth grade — in a school that a
decade ago held 582 children and went up to eighth grade.

The department planned to merge the school into nearby Public School 76, the A. Philip Randolph School, and
then redraw school zone lines to redistribute parts of P.S. 241’s zone to other
schools.

Despite the STEM Institute’s poor performance, the plan was met with protests
in the neighborhood. At contentious public hearings on the proposal, Harlem
parents said they felt ignored by the department and the Community Education Council, the elected
board that must approve new zone lines.

At a meeting in November, Felicia Harrison,
the mother of a fourth grader at the STEM Institute, asked why in the case of a
proposed rezoning in the southern part of District 3 parents had been given a year and a half to debate new
zone lines, while she and other Harlem parents had been notified of the
proposed merger of the schools less than two months before it was to be voted
on.

“Why were we not given the same respect as the downtown parents?” she asked,
eliciting applause and shouts of “Why?” from other parents in the audience.

The complaints prompted some members of the council, most of whom live in the
southern part of the district, to express regret for neglecting the problems
facing the Harlem schools.

“We’re all going to have to be able to look at ourselves and say what it is
that we didn’t do and what it is that needs to be done,” one member, Daniel
Katz, said at a meeting on Dec. 14. “I think the first step is definitely to
shut up and listen, because we’ve got a lot of listening to do.”

Some observers blame the struggles of Harlem’s traditional public schools
entirely on the increasing number of charter schools in the neighborhood,
saying that the administration of former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg fostered
the growth of charters while doing too little to help the traditional public
schools compete with them in recruiting families.

“The schools up here were put in a situation by previous administrations where they were told,
‘Compete for students,’” Mr. Katz said at the Dec. 14 meeting, “and then the
people who told them to compete for students walked away from helping them
compete.”

Another council member, Noah Gotbaum, said at a meeting in October that the
STEM Institute, then known as P.S. 241 Family Academy, had been successful
until the Education Department put the Success Academy Harlem 4 charter school
in the building in 2009. He said that the Success school had siphoned off
families and resources from P.S. 241.

“A thriving public school that we had is now closing because of a charter
school,” Mr. Gotbaum said.

That does not fit the facts. The Education Department first moved to close P.S.
241 for a combination of low enrollment and poor performance in 2008-09. It
ultimately backed down after the
teachers union filed a lawsuit. However, while he was forced to
give the school a reprieve, the chancellor at the time, Joel I. Klein, hardly
seemed to be rooting for it to succeed, sending a letter to parents there
urging them to “seriously consider” applying to the Success school or to the
other zoned schools in the neighborhood.

The percentage of neighborhood children who choose to enroll at the STEM
Institute and three other nearby district public schools is much lower than at
most schools in the southern part of the district. Last year, less than a
quarter of the kindergartners who were zoned to attend those schools and went
to public school enrolled, according to the Education Department. (The
department does not track how many children go to private school.) By contrast, Public School
87, the William T. Sherman School, on West 78th Street, last year attracted 89
percent of the kindergartners who lived in its zone and attended public school.

Many of the neighborhood’s black and Hispanic families choose charter schools,
which have higher test scores and long waiting lists. At Success Academy Harlem 4, 94 percent of the
students who took the latest state math test passed it. Other families go to
private schools or to public schools in other parts of District 3, like Public
School 333, the Manhattan School for Children, a non-zoned
school on West 93rd Street with a progressive approach that is open to anyone
in District 3 and admits students by lottery. Last year it received 975
applications for 100 kindergarten seats and had a waiting list of more than 600
families.

Kim Watkins, the chairwoman of the Community Education Council’s zoning committee,
is zoned for one of the Harlem district schools, Public School 149, the
Sojourner Truth School, but sends her daughter to a gifted
program elsewhere in the district. P.S. 149 is in the city’s Renewal program,
which aims to rapidly improve low-performing schools.

Ms. Watkins said that when she toured P.S. 149 three years ago, she had thought
it was not rigorous enough and lacked many of the benefits that exist in
middle-class schools. In addition, Ms. Watkins said of her daughter, “she would
have, frankly, been the only white kid in the class — I was concerned about
that.”

The district’s superintendent, Ilene Altschul, suggested at the Dec. 14
education council meeting that the main reason families were not choosing the
Harlem schools was not low test scores, but a failure to “get the word out
about the amazing programs that are going on in all of our schools.”

She noted steps that some of the schools were taking to improve their
performance, including the hiring of an academic coach to work with teachers at
the STEM Institute and the hiring of a math consultant and a new writing
curriculum at P.S. 149. She noted that P.S. 149 had also recently added programs
in dance, singing, soccer, in-line skating and robotics.

But more than two years after its academic struggles earned it a place in the
Renewal program, P.S. 149 has not yet made clear progress on the goals set for
it by the city. In the last school year, its first under a new principal, its
attendance and performance on the reading exams improved while its performance
on the math exams declined slightly.

Charles DeBerry, the principal of P.S. 76, the school that was set to absorb
the STEM Institute, said he felt outgunned by
the promotional efforts of charter schools, especially the Success Academy network,
which has three schools in District 3 and has spent millions of dollars to
recruit students for its schools across the city. (The Success network now has
41 schools in four boroughs.)

“We’re certainly not working with the advertising budget that some of the
charter schools have,” he said.

Dr. Inyanga Collins, a physician whose daughter has attended P.S. 76 since
prekindergarten and is now in sixth grade, said that while P.S. 76 had many
high-needs students, she felt it worked well with them. (The school has a
partnership with the Harlem Children’s Zone, which provides a teaching
assistant or an aide in every class.) She said she would like to see parents at
the school be more involved.

“I feel as though the school is doing their part — we as parents have to step
up and do our part,” she said. Of the proposed merger, she said, “This has been
a wake-up call that this could all be gone, just like that.”

Clara Hemphill, the editor of InsideSchools.org, which reviews schools and
advocates greater integration, has been studying District 3 closely.

The aggressive marketing by charter schools, particularly Success Academy,
“certainly hurt the district schools,” she said, “but the district schools did
not fight back with effective leadership and teaching, which is what you need.”

Ms. Hemphill said that schools like P.S. 149 and P.S. 241, which both have
relatively new principals, should be given time to improve, but that it might
ultimately be easier to start a new school than to turn failing ones around.
She said she thought the district should try to replicate the Manhattan School
for Children uptown.

“That’s a kind of school that would be very popular among parents in the
northern part of the district and would have a chance of being a racially
integrated school, which we desperately need,” she said.

Testimonials From Some of Our Clients

“Dear Betsy,
I am forever indebted to you, Betsy, for your expert advice throughout a horrific ordeal. You worked tirelessly to prove my innocence in a 3020a proceeding that was instigated by a corrupt school district and fueled by lies. My proceedings ended with my complete exoneration, my record expunged and my immediate return to the classroom. We didn’t even need to file an appeal! Thank you, Betsy. I am now eligible to retire and enjoy the benefits you helped me to protect. God bless you and the work you do protecting the innocent
Maria G;

Alexandra F.

Dear Betsy,

I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for CONSTANTLY being there for me throughout such a tumultuous time in my life. I have been battling severe harassment at my place of work for months now, and you have advised me through every single second of it. I would not have had the strength or confidence to battle such an evil administration without your help. You have answered my phone calls from 7AM through nearly midnight with any and all of my concerns. I have called you countless times to just vent, or even cry, and you have been there with open arms to pivot my negative anticipations into positive advocacy. You have gone above and beyond your line of duty to help me, and for that, I can never repay you. You have changed the outcome of my life, and led me to justice. More importantly, you have led me to happiness again, for which I am eternally grateful. As I am getting older, I am realizing that there are many bad people in this world, but you are TRULY one of the good ones. When one finds a great person in life with their true best interest at heart, they should hold onto that and take their word as bond. My last statement truly defines you, an expert in what you do, as well as a 24 hour support system. You are amazing Betsy, and my life would truly not be the same if you had not stepped into it!!!!!

Thank you again for EVERYTHING you have done for me. Your advisement and care will be carried in my heart for the rest of my life.

Alexandra F.

Tollyne D.

After 18 years of service, the general consensus as a union member is that you cannot trust people and you have to be extremely careful who you talk to. I was brought up being told that I should be sure that the person I am speaking to is knowledgeable and to be TRUSTED, and Betsy Combier is such a person. She consistently proves that she is trustworthy, very knowledgeable and caring, time and time again.

Tollyne D.

David P.

To whom this may concern,
I want to recommend Betsy Combier as the best person you could have in your corner. From the first day I met Betsy I felt secure. I had the misfortune of having to go through a 3020a hearing and with help of Ms. Combier my job was secure, I don’t know where I would be without Betsy’s help and support. She is still assisting me with my federal case. I could not recommend Betsy any higher, she is a person of her word, and her expertise is important and necessary for everyone without any problem.
David P.

Jason R.

I met Betsy Combier approximately about 5 years ago, as a result of a recommendation from a colleague. Since then she has been an advocate of mine ever since, and has worked above and beyond my expectation. Betsy fights against the wrongdoing of public education officials in New York City. Throughout the extremely difficult arbitration, Betsy fought for my unalienable rights, even though my former principal did everything in her power to tarnish my name and damage my career.
Betsy is not an attorney yet she has the experience and knowledge that is above and beyond that of an attorney and follows through on all issues. She is truly an angel from heaven above, and a quality public defender.

Laura B.

I was charged with a 3020A in October 2016 after receiving three developing ratings in a row. I called numerous law firms as well as my union. Most people who I talked to said that I should settle because I was fighting a losing battle. A lawyer told me that anyone that says you can win a 3020A is a liar. I heard about Betsy from a teacher placed in my building who was going through the 3020A process. I hired Betsy and one of the Attorneys who works with her and her company, and won my case! Betsy saved my job and saved my life because she was emotionally supportive at a time when I needed it the most. Betsy goes above and beyond for her clients. She is readily available day and night for her clients. Betsy’s knowledge of education law is exceptional and she was a great help to my attorney. Betsy is relentless and fights hard for her clients.

ADVOCATZ

Contact me with a concern or issue

I assist anyone who needs help, so email me your problem to start the ball rolling! I am a teacher/parent advocate, and I am the editor/writer for this blog and the website parentadvocates.org. I also write about court corruption on my blog "NYC Court Corruption". I am interested in random injustice and the criminalizing of innocent people. If you want to chat you may email me at: betsy.combier@gmail.com and I'm on twitter and have a facebook page too. I'm not an attorney and do not give legal advice.

If you want to talk with me about your 3020-a charges, I consult and go over your case without charge. No fee.

And, in response to the lies of certain individuals who resent my work, the truth is that all conversations are confidential and I do not tape secretly.

Betsy Combier

My Thoughts and Raison d'etre

This blog is about the denial of Constitutional rights by the Mayor, the New York City Department of Education and the Chancellor, New York State and Federal Courts, New York State legislature, and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), as well as PACs and all parties participating in the business of public school education in New York City, to harm and in neglect of parents, children, and staff of public schools in the five boroughs. These thoughts are not simply mindless conclusions reached out of thin air, but a result of 14 years of research into the NYC DOE and the Courts as a reporter and paralegal.
I am an advocate of Unions and union rights, public schools and charters, and learning online as well as outside of the classroom. I cannot and do not support anyone, whether they be union management, government, private members of the political or legal system, or simply retired teachers with an agenda, if he or she tramples, discards, or rebuffs anyone's individual civil rights. As a reporter, journalist, advocate, researcher and paralegal, I have created this blog to inform the public about my experience working for the UFT and being the parent of four daughters who went through the public school system in NYC, as well as examine issues that flow from the massive denial of due process rights that I saw and have documented. The two most important points you should remember: first, everyone at the New York City Board/Department of Education and all Union bigs are motivated by power and money, and looking good. If anyone dares to blow the whistle on these racketeers, retaliation follows, so be a strategist; second, I am not an Attorney and nothing I write or say is legal advice, simply my thoughts. Take 'em or leave 'em.
Betsy Combier, Editor
NYC Rubber Room Reporter
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com
New York Court Corruption
http://newyorkcourtcorruption.blogspot.com
Parentadvocates.org
http://www.parentadvocates.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/betsy.combier
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BetsyCombier
The NYC Public Voice
http://nycpublicvoice.blogspot.com/betsy.combier@gmail.com
Lawline July 27, 2011
http://www.teachem.com/lawlinetv/learn/lawline-tv-teachers-unions-the-last-in-first-out-rule/

Principal Anne Seifullah changes her image so that she can keep her job amidst sexting and trysts in the school, Robert Wagner Secondary Sch...

Google + Rubber Room Community

FAITH

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly. Patrick Overton

Truth Seeks Light - Lies Seek Shadows

sayin like it is

Actions Have Consequences

Writing as Music

Rubber Room teachers wish me a happy birthday (2006)

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."

- Aristotle

Important Numbers

Amy Arundel (ATR Point Person) 212-510-6468

UFT www.uft.org

OPI (Problem Code) 1-718-935-2666

UFT Certification Services 1-212-420-1830

Teachers REtirement System 1-888-869-2877

Mandated Reporters 1-800-635-1522

Staten Island UFT 1-718-605-1400

Brooklyn UFT 1-718-852-4900

Bronx UFT 1-718-379-6200

Manhattan UFT 1-212-598-6800

Queens UFT 1-718-275-4400

Rubber Room Satire

The Labor Movement

The Teaching Equation

We Can Work Out Our Differences

The E-Accountability Foundation

The E-Accountability Foundation brings you this blog which highlights issues that have or should be read by people interested in civil rights, and accountability. The E-Accountability Foundation is a 501(C)3 organization that holds people accountable for their actions online and, through the internet, seeks to bring justice to anyone who has been harmed without reason. We give the'A for Accountability' Awardto those who are willing to blow the whistle on unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status.

AddThis

Performance Management - Office of Labor Relations

From Betsy Combier

The NYC Office of Labor Relations, with the support of the UFT, has issued to principals a document called"Performance Management" on how to get rid of an incompetent teacher. Who is an "incompetent teacher"? Anyone the NYC Department of Education wants to remove from the system because he/she is too senior (makes too much money), is disabled (and therefore cannot be deemed factory-perfect) and/or is other impaired (is a whistleblower, cannot be intimidated, is ethnically challenged - not the 'right' race, etc).

Candace R. McLaren

Director, Office of Special Investigations (OSI)

Follow by Email

Polo Colon

"Rubber Room"

(1) a space where a worker subject to a disciplinary hearing or other administrative action waits and does no work; generally, a place or personal mind-set of isolation.(2) a literal reference to a padded cell, which is, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “a room in a psychiatric hospital with padded walls to prevent violent patients from injuring themselves.”from Double-Tongued Dictionary http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/rubber_room/

"Rubberization"

The word "rubberization" is a new word that is used to describe the process of assigning and paying people to sit and do nothing in a drab room away from their place of employment while their employers make up charges that allege sexual or corporal misconduct without any facts upon which to base the allegation on.

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Theresa Europe, NYC BOE ATU Director

Robin Greenfield

Deputy Counsel to the NYC DOE

UFT Pres. Mike Mulgrew and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg

UFT umbrella pals

New York State Supreme Court Judge Manuel Mendez

ATR CONNECT

Tenured Teachers who are found to be guilty of misconduct or incompetency at 3020-a but are not terminated, who have blown the whistle on the misconduct of politically favored NYC Department of Education employees, and/or who are simply disliked for any reason can suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool - employees without rights or voices, and without chapter leader union representation.

This new group of people are the "new" rubber roomers without representation at the UFT and denied the protection of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, because basically they have been pushed out of their jobs unfairly and under color of law by Mayor Bloomberg and the Chief Executives of the Department of Education who call themselves "Chancellors", "Network Leaders", "Superintendents", etc., consistently without any facts or evidence to support the false claims.

A group of teachers who are, or were, made into ATRs, ATR Polo Colon, and I, Betsy Combier, an advocate for transparency and labor/employment rights, have joined together to expose the denial of due process, civil and human rights by chiefs of the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE), certain arbitrators at 3020-a, leaders of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the "investigators" -agents who work for the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI), Office of Special Investigation (OSI), and the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) - and the Attorneys who work for the New York United Teachers (NYSUT), and the New York Law Department (Corporation Counsel).

In order to protect the safety of those who join this group to promote an end to the "Rubberization" process described on this blog since 2007, names of those who tell their stories will, for now, remain anonymous if the person so desires, and Polo and I will be the gatekeepers. So if you are an ATR, or know a story involving an ATR or someone re-assigned or about to go into a 3020-a, please use the email address advocatz77@gmail.com and give us your contact information. We will protect your anonymity and hold onto your privacy.

Betsy Combier and Polo Colon, Editors

FAITH When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.

Patrick Overton

We have forty million reasons for failure but not a single excuse.Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The Re-Assignment Overview by Betsy Combier

The New York City Board of Education decided in 2002 to rid the public school system of staff who interfered with their takeover and control. The criteria for a "good teacher" is now, more often than not, a "silent teacher", a person who never asks questions, is younger than 40, is making a salary below $50,000, does not care about kids and what they learn, or whether or not money (books, supplies, equipment, etc) is missing. When a teacher or staff member of a school dares to do the right thing and speaks out about wrong-doing - this person is often called a "whistleblower" or "flamethrower" - or, simply is not liked for any reason by the Principal/NYC personnel, suddenly he/she is accused of something by somebody ("given a label of "A", "B", "C", and so on) and whisked away to a drab room called a temporary re-assignment center or "rubber room". Members of the offices of the Special Commissioner of Investigation or the Office of Special Investigations then start work on building a case against the person to justify their being thrown in prison, declared "unfit for duty", or, as Mr. Joel Klein has said, characterized as "guilty of sexual activities and corporal punishment" against the children of New York City.The stories of the people I have met who sit every day in the 8 rubber rooms of NYC prove to me that Mr. Klein is very wrong about his assessment, and this blog is created to prove it to you.

Puppy Snooze

US Department of Labor ELAWS

Aeri Pang, Gotcha Squad Attorney

Attorney Pang, red dress, now chief Attorney For New York State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern

New York State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern

NYC EdStats You Can Use

$12.5 billion: Annual New York City Department of Education (DOE) budget (2002)

$21 billion: Annual New York City DOE budget (2009)
1,719: Number officials employed by the DOE central administration in June 2002

2,442: Number of officials employed by the central administration as of November 2008

2: Number of DOE officials earning more than $180,000 per year in 2004.

22: Number of DOE officials earning more than $180,000 per year in 2007.

5: Number of DOE public relations staffers in 2003.

23: Number of DOE public relations staffers in 2008.

944: Number of contracts approved by DOE in 2008, at a total cost of $1.9 billion.

20: Percentage of contracts that exceeded estimated cost by at least 25 percent.

$67.5 million: Annual budget of Project Arts, a decade-old program that was the sole source of dedicated funding for arts education. It was eliminated in 2007.

86: Percentage of principals who said in a 2008 poll that they were unable to provide a quality education because of excessive class sizes in their schools.

100,000: Number of seats DOE plans to provide for charter school students by 2012.

25,000: Number of seats DOE plans to build under 2010 to 2014 capital plan.

66,895: Number of K-3 school-children in classes of 25 or more during the 2008-09 school year.

15,440: Average number of seats per year built during the last six years of the Rudolph Giuliani administration.

10,895: Average number of seats per year built during the first six years of the Bloomberg administration.

27.2: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2001-02 who were Black.

14.1: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2006-07 who were Black.

53.3: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2001-02 who were white.

65.5: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2006-07 who were white.

76: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Latino students in 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) in 2003.

75: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic students in 8th grade ELA in 2008.

77: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic 8th graders in math in 2003.

81: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic 8th graders in math in 2008.

54: Percentage of New York City public school parents who disapproved of Mayor Bloomberg’s handling of education, according to a March 2009 Quinnipiac poll.

Sources: New York City Council, New York City Comptroller’s Office, New York Daily News, New York Post, Eduwonkette, Quinnipiac Institute, Black Educator, Class Size Matters, New York City Schools Under Bloomberg and Klein.

Betsy Combier and NYSUT lawyer Chris Callagy

The New York City Whistle Award

NYC Whistlers, Winners of the NYC Whistle Award

...are those individuals in New York City who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. Whistlers ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up.

These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions.

Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

Betsy Combier

Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon

Condon "qualified" for his current post after Bloomberg lowered standards; who will leash him?

A great teacher

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said: 'Let me see if I've got this right.

'You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

'You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

'You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job 'You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.

'You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

'You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletinboard, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps. 'You want me to do all this and then you tell me. . . I CAN'T PRAY?

NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly

Joel Klein's famous statement about rubber room teachers and staff

On November 27, 2006, temporarily re-assigned teacher (TRT) Polo Colon asked Joel Klein, the "pretend" Chancellor of the NYC public school system, if he had voted to terminate teachers at the secret Executive Session held just before the public meeting of the Panel For Educational Policy.Mr. Klein answered,"We did not vote to terminate you. We did vote to terminate a teacher in executive Session...in fact, we voted to terminate two teachers. It's perfectly consistent with the law.Many teachers have been charged with sexual activities and some are charged with corporal punishment...I have no interest in removing people who are qualified to teach, I can assure you, because I dont get any return...and in fact, I have complained publicly about how long this process drags out. But our first concern will always be and, as a former lawyer and somebody who clerked on the United States Supreme Court I will tell you, there is no violation of due process whatsoever..."- extracted from the audiotape of the PEP meeting bought by Betsy Combier after filing a FOIL request to the NYC BOE

Rally November 2008 at Tweed

November 26, 2007 Candelight Vigil

Thousands of teachers and school staff members rally at Tweed

A Review of Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools by Betsy Combier

Lydia Segal's book puts the NYC, Chicago, and California Departments of Education on notice....we who have read this book know more about how the system is not there for our kids than "you" want us to know. Lydia Segal's book Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools changes the public school reform movement forever. We can no longer assume that more money allocated to our schools will "fix" the disaster that is our public school system.

Lydia Segal draws on her 10 years of undercover investigation and research in over five urban school districts, including the three largest, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the two most decentralized, Houston and Edmonton, Canada, to provide, in her new book Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools, the details of the corruption, theft, fraud, and patronage that has overrun our public school establishment for several decades. There is no question that anyone who is interested in school reform -this means anyone who pays taxes, is a parent or guardian of a child attending school and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first - must read this book. Ms. Segal's research and information on the education establishment's 'dark' side outrages the reader, and incites us to demand change. Her book therefore, is much more than a book, it is a call to action. We cannot be bystanders any longer to the systemic abuse she so vividly describes, and we will never be able to listen in the same way ever again to school Principals, Superintendents, school custodians or district board members as they request more money "to help the children."

The book's detailed reports on the corruption and crime in our public schools, supported by 52 pages of interview notes, references and specific examples, provide irrefutable evidence that the current failures of our nation's public schools are not due to the lack of money but the impossibility of getting the money to the children who need it and for whom the money is allocated in the first place. Recent statistics show that students of all ages are not learning what they need to know, schools are overcome with violence, teachers are demoralized, and yet billions of dollars are literally shovelled into the system every year. The New York City school system receives more than $16 billion every year; Los Angeles, $7 billion; and Chicago, $3.6 billion. Where does this money go? We have all asked this question as we have walked through school hallways dodging the paint falling off the walls and ceilings, watching our children sitting on broken chairs, using bathrooms without running water or toilet paper, and struggling to achieve their personal best without the services and resources they are supposed to have. Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools is the first book ever to systematically examine school waste and corruption and how to fight it. Ms. Segal, an undercover school investigator turned law professor, documents where the money goes, how waste and fraud embedded in the operation of large school bureaucracies siphon money from classrooms, distort educational priorities, block initiatives, and what we can do to bring badly-needed change. She describes in detail how only a small percentage of the money allocated to students in our public schools actually gets used by them due to corruption and waste, and how city school systems scoring lowest on standardized tests tend to have the biggest criminal records and most payroll padding. Coding problems, the procurement process, compartmentalization and opacity of information leave administrators with only two options: good corruption (which ultimately helps the kids) and bad corruption (which never helps anyone but the perpetrator and his/her allies and accomplices). Indeed, the system fights those who try the good corruption route.

Ms. Segal argues that the problem is not usually bad people, but a bad system that focuses on process at the expense of results. Decades of rules and regulations along with layers of top-down supervision make it so hard to do business with school systems that they encourage the very fraud and waste they were designed to curb. She tells us about how the "godfathers" and "godmothers" (the school board members) obtain jobs for their "pieces" in order to protect the systemic waste and fraud from being dismantled or exposed. Fortunately, she writes, there are good people involved in the corruption as well who must violate the rules in order to get their jobs done. Nonetheless, absurdities abound: school systems following rules to save every penny spend thousands of dollars hunting down checks as small as $25; it takes so long to pay vendors for their work that some have to bribe school officials to move their checks along; caring Principals who want to fix leaky toilets may have to pay workers under the table because submitting a work order through the central office could, and often does, take years. Meanwhile, those who pilfer from classrooms get away with it because the pyramidal structure of large districts makes schools inherently difficult to oversee. What makes Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools a must-read is not only the fascinating - and depressing - details of the systemic wrong-doing but also Ms. Segal's suggestions for reform, based on the proven track records of school systems across North America that have successfully reduced waste and fraud and have pushed more resources into schools.

The pathology of the corruption suggests the remedy, Ms. Segal says, which is decentralization of power into the schools and the hands of the Principals. Distilling what successful school systems have done, Segal advocates new forms of oversight that do not clog up school systems and recommends giving principals more discretion over their school budgets as well as holding them accountable for job performance. She argues for "autonomy in exchange for performance accountability" as part of a bold, far-reaching plan for reclaiming our schools. Her conclusion is logical and convincing. Everyone who reads this book will find his or her perception of public school education changed forever. We cannot accept any longer that a generation of children has been abused by a system that is so full of greed and corruption without screaming "stop!" and "Your game is up!"

Segal reveals how systemic waste and fraud siphon millions of dollars from urban classrooms and shows how money is lost in systems that focus on process rather than on results, as well as how regulations established to curb waste and fraud provide perverse incentives for new forms of both. Anyone who is interested in school reform--this means anyone who pays taxes, is a parent or guardian of a child attending school, and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first--must read this book. --

Lydia G. Segal is Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Public Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

The NYC BOE FAMIS Online Tour

The FAMIS Portal Online Tour provides an overview and demonstration of the FAMIS Portal. Computer speakers or headphones are recommended. Choose an item of interest below, or click on the Introduction to proceed through all of the modules in sequence.

About Me

Reporter, paralegal, advocate,I will investigate, search on the internet and in all data bases for information that will help a person in need of resolution to a problem.I believe in substantive and procedural due process for all individuals, groups and organizations and trademarked the term "e-accountability" to describe the purpose of my work. I am the parent of four daughters.

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Testimonials From Some of Our Clients

Dear Betsy,
I am forever indebted to you, Betsy, for your expert advice throughout a horrific ordeal. You worked tirelessly to prove my innocence in a 3020a proceeding that was instigated by a corrupt school district and fueled by lies. My proceedings ended with my complete exoneration, my record expunged and my immediate return to the classroom. We didn’t even need to file an appeal! Thank you, Betsy. I am now eligible to retire and enjoy the benefits you helped me to protect. God bless you and the work you do protecting the innocent.-Maria G.
To whom this may concern,
I want to recommend Betsy Combier as the best person you could have in your corner. From the first day I met Betsy I felt secure. I had the misfortune of having to go through a 3020a hearing and with help of Ms. Combier my job was secure, I don’t know where I would be without Betsy’s help and support. She is still assisting me with my federal case. I could not recommend Betsy any higher, she is a person of her word, and her expertise is important and necessary for everyone with any problem-David P.
I met Betsy Combier approximately about 5 years ago, as a result of a recommendation from a colleague. Since then she has been an advocate of mine ever since, and has worked above and beyond my expectation. Betsy fights against the wrongdoing of public education officials in New York City. Throughout the extremely difficult arbitration, Betsy fought for my unalienable rights, even though my former principal did everything in her power to tarnish my name and damage my career.
Betsy is not an attorney yet she has the experience and knowledge that is above and beyond that of an attorney and follows through on all issues. She is truly an angel from heaven above, and a quality public defender.-Jason R.
I was charged with a 3020A in October 2016 after receiving three developing ratings in a row. I called numerous law firms as well as my union. Most people who I talked to said that I should settle because I was fighting a losing battle. A lawyer told me that anyone that says you can win a 3020A is a liar. I heard about Betsy from a teacher placed in my building who was going through the 3020A process. I hired Betsy and one of the Attorneys who works with her and her company, and won my case! Betsy saved my job and saved my life because she was emotionally supportive at a time when I needed it the most. Betsy goes above and beyond for her clients. She is readily available day and night for her clients. Betsy’s knowledge of education law is exceptional and she was a great help to my attorney. Betsy is relentless and fights hard for her clients. -Laura B.

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